It will never come to that. He'll be released, i guess once Amaro is.

Shin-Soo Choo lf
7 years/$130M (2014-20)

7 years/$130M (2014-20)
signed by Texas as a free agent 12/13
14:$14M, 15:$14M, 16:$20M, 17:$20M, 18:$20M, 19:$21M, 20:$21M
limited no-trade protection (may block deals to 10 clubs/season)
award bonuses: $0.25M for MVP. $0.15M for WS MVP. $0.1M each for All-Star, Gold Glove, Silver Slugger, LCS MVP

They got 0.1 bref WAR for that 14M last year. Currently at -0.4 this season.

Saw the musings about how Howard might take being told he's not any kind of factor in the Phils' present or future, and the contractual predicament that obliges him to suit up to collect.

I know it is the conventional wisdom that it is an utter waste of time to retool a major league hitter's swing, that a team gains nothing, the player gains nothing, etc. But the Phils are boring, and will continue to be all season, so I'm casting around for anything that might spice them up.

But perhaps Howard is the exception that proves the rule. He's essentially at the end of his playing career if he continues to do things the way he does things; he's an athlete, of a sort; he's a hard worker; and he's an immensely strong fellow.

His big, complicated swing is doing neither him nor the Phillies a bit of good. He intimidates no one; he accomplishes little; he will accomplish maybe less as the days and weeks and months wear on (yeah, yeah, he heats up when summer comes along; that might mean he hits 15 May-September HRs. Or not).

Why not simplify the swing, shorten it, focus on hitting squarely the few pitches he can identify as hittable, and maybe for extra credit deposit more struck balls in areas of the field he currently does not?

What is the worst that could happen? It would give him something to occupy his mind, something for his teammates to wager on the success of, and something to pass the time while he struggles to contribute to the Phils' version of the national pastime. Do it for the PR value.

drsmooth wrote:Saw the musings about how Howard might take being told he's not any kind of factor in the Phils' present or future, and the contractual predicament that obliges him to suit up to collect.

I know it is the conventional wisdom that it is an utter waste of time to retool a major league hitter's swing, that a team gains nothing, the player gains nothing, etc. But the Phils are boring, and will continue to be all season, so I'm casting around for anything that might spice them up.

But perhaps Howard is the exception that proves the rule. He's essentially at the end of his playing career if he continues to do things the way he does things; he's an athlete, of a sort; he's a hard worker; and he's an immensely strong fellow.

His big, complicated swing is doing neither him nor the Phillies a bit of good. He intimidates no one; he accomplishes little; he will accomplish maybe less as the days and weeks and months wear on (yeah, yeah, he heats up when summer comes along; that might mean he hits 15 May-September HRs. Or not).

Why not simplify the swing, shorten it, focus on hitting squarely the few pitches he can identify as hittable, and maybe for extra credit deposit more struck balls in areas of the field he currently does not?

What is the worst that could happen? It would give him something to occupy his mind, something for his teammates to wager on the success of, and something to pass the time while he struggles to contribute to the Phils' version of the national pastime. Do it for the PR value.

I kind of think what you propose is unlikely for several reasons, but the most glaring is also the most simple to understand - he's a mid-30's former successful slugger. He's been hitting more or less the same way his whole life. And most guys - just do things on instinct. They may make some small adjustments or mental adjustments -- strategy-wise - but it's a lifetime of repetition. What you propose, if it's even possible - would require him to erase his natural familiar instinctual way of being a hitter. Maybe -- maybe if he had the "just right coach" who had a bond with him, could really work with him and had an idea that could actually work - MAYBE - you could get him to slap a few oppo singles make a little more contact - but then what? He becomes a .260 hitting Freddy Galvis?

MLB has a problem. They need to change the way things work. Players get these ridiculous contracts, and then clubs are stuck. I'm not saying that owners should become multi-billionaires whilst players get peanuts in comparison -- but there are just too many big contracts that don't pan out, in all sports but especially MLB.

I don't have the answer - but there must be a better more fair way. MLB is the most studied statistical major sport. Someone(s) can come up with a year to year multi-matrix evaluation system. Maybe every player gets a base related to seniority. Then, there is some kind of elaborate system, that determines what the player gets at the end of the season based on an elaborate formula, and within a scale or weighting system. Essentially, the idea is get paid for what you do, not what you did last year or might do next year. So when Ryan hit 58hrs and won MVP - despite being under team control etc, he would have gotten a base for his seniority -- and then 30mil for that season. Now, he'd get base and very little above it. Players can earn lots of money still but they earn for what they do.

If they get "hurt on the job", then there is some kind of compensation. They get medical, their base, and maybe some kind of "field of duty" compensation extra.

And free agency would be more limited -- but involve some kind of non-refundable bonus - with caps n such. Some kind of hybrid with NFL system with caps and when you can steal a guy from another team and what you lose to do so, when a team can match.

It works better in Baseball than Football because there are so many more games, more measurables and while injury is still a big deal, not like it is with NFL.

Just a thought...

Kid, I don't think it's up to MLB or the players' union to change anything for this kind of case.

It's up to the player.

The Phils are stuck with paying him. Period. That's the deal they made. In Howard's case they're fucked (the Phillies should fuck Rubes, but that's a matter for other threads).

Players are entitled to pursue the deals that are best for them.

The issue here is almost entirely personal for Howard. He's not going to contribute much if anything trying to do what he used to do when he was able to do it (today's run-scoring triple notwithstanding). To oversimplify it, he can say "fuck baseball, I'm gonna be paid, I'll just go through the motions, pretending I'm the player I was, even though I'm not". OR, he can say, for example, "let's get someone in here who can help me make some kind of small adjustment that permits me to make more productive contact on pitches I swing at. Something tangible that I can work at that may make some kind of positive difference in the near term. That's all."

If the latter doesn't work, nobody will notice, because he's a pile of not much now, and he's not going anywhere. If it DOES do something, anything, positive, the few people watching Phillies baseball games the next 2 seasons will remark about how smart & admirable he is. If he does nothing, you're left with admiring him for what he did several years ago, and thinking he's a big dumb lummox, baseball-wise (except for the whole collecting $25 million a year for not really doing much part).

If Howard keeps producing the way he has I guess you could unload him....but the question would become why?

Warszawa wrote:If Howard keeps producing the way he has I guess you could unload him....but the question would become why?

Because we still have to pay him over $50mill and there's no guarantee he can continue playing how he is.

Warszawa wrote:If Howard keeps producing the way he has I guess you could unload him....but the question would become why?

Because he is not in the future plans of this team?

if they keep franco at third, which they should and it appears they will, then they really don't have anyone coming through the system. I'd let him play out the string and will be rooting really hard for him to keep up this production.

etched Chaos wrote:

Warszawa wrote:If Howard keeps producing the way he has I guess you could unload him....but the question would become why?

Because we still have to pay him over $50mill and there's no guarantee he can continue playing how he is.

And because you could take that savings and include it in the Hamels/Papelbon/Revere/etc trades and get better/more prospects in return.

They will still be paying him if they trade him though.

i think Warszawa was joking.

hard to tell anymore. baseball is a [funny/not-so-funny] game. or is it?

Oh it's funny alright. But I ain't laughing.

ReadingPhilly wrote:if they keep franco at third, which they should and it appears they will, then they really don't have anyone coming through the system. I'd let him play out the string and will be rooting really hard for him to keep up this production.

Chase could play more 1B, giving Cesar more starts

Too early to put Cano on here?

Currenly hitting .241 .281 .348
(before today)
OPS+ 82, bref WAR 0.5
32 years with eight full seasons left on his deal at 24M per

holy cow how was he last year? I thought for sure he'd be durable for a long time

Bucky wrote:holy cow how was he last year? I thought for sure he'd be durable for a long time

he had a WRc+ of 136 and OPS+ of 143.

we did it, a list of baseball's worst contracts and no Howard
http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/2015-tra ... ttom-five/

Not even a dishonorable mention, I'm insulted